We've become foster parents...

...for dogs. A few weeks back, we ran into a situation that landed us with a stray rottweiler mix. It was obvious she was someone's dog and had been abandoned, which unfortunately is a HUGE problem here in Naples. So we ended up taking her in, cleaning her up, and began the search for a new home for her. We could tell by her underside that she had had puppies not long ago, she was house trained, leash trained, and crate trained. We named her Mya, she took to all of us immediately, and treated Sucre like her own pup. We had her for a couple weeks but unfortunately there was a little slip up and to make a long story short, she's back out on the streets somewhere. We hoped to see her again and I've looked around to try to find her, but we haven't seen her since. It was a very sad situation, and thankfully she was at least cleaned up and well fed, but there wasn't much more we could do for her once she left. That brings us up to last night. A guy in Michael's section came to us asking a huge favor. He had two dogs that he had adopted out while back. The new guy didn't take care of the dogs, and finally said he didn't want them anymore. Michael's co-worker and his wife already have two labs, and I don't think 4 dogs are allowed in the on base housing. So last night he went to pick up the dogs, they took in one of the dogs, and asked us if we could foster the other one while he finds homes for them. This dog's name is EJ and he's an American Bulldog. He's about 10 months old, looks like a mean, solid piece of meat, but is such a lazy little baby! He's very quiet and well behaved, and he absolutely loves Sucre, which is good because Sucre is getting a lot of social interaction with other dogs now. Speaking of Sucre, he has a tiny little slip up once in a while, but he's pretty much fully potty trained now at almost 3 months old. He also sits, stays, shakes, and lays down on command. His biting has gone down a lot, but his teeth still bother him and he's still a playful little puppy so he does still nip when he gets excited and wants to play. We keep lots of toys and bones around, so thankfully we've never had a problem with him trying to chew our furniture. Michael, Caleb, and I are all doing great. The school goes through applications and does call-backs the end of August/beginning of September, so hopefully Caleb's teacher will be giving us a call! Being E4 status, we are highest priority among the ranks, but now it comes down to us and all the other E4's trying to get in. Caleb is excited about school, he talks about it all the time and really wants to go. We've been working on spelling words and he's picking up on some simple words now. He can usually spell his name, and he knows what little words say, for example "stop." Nothing else is really new right now. Michael works, I spend my days with Caleb and the dogs, we've been trying lots of new foods, working out a lot, and just enjoying the weather! I have a few videos and pictures. They're nothing exciting, just us and the dogs in our every day life, but it's an update. Oh and one more thing, it's official, Jenna is coming out to visit us in December! She's flying out of Boston the 17th, we'll pick her up in Rome on the 18th, and she'll be here until the 30th. We are so excited! We also have Vonage now, so we have a stateside phone number. I will send out an e-mail with the number.